Distinguishing Soul from Vital Being

The lack of experience and recognition of the action of the soul makes it difficult for most people to understand the reality of the soul. For this reason, people tend to confuse the true soul with the vital soul of desire, which Sri Aurobindo calls the ‘desire-soul’. This is an expression of the vital being and is seen as passionate, sensuous and desire-filled. The vital connection feltl between two individuals clues us in to how people tend to identify a ‘soul mate’. Because people generally identify with and live on the surface of their being, for the most part, anything identified as ‘soul’ turns out to be related to the feeling we experience in our vital nature.

The soul itself is not attached to the experiences of the exte
al being, per se. Soul experience relates to the connection between the soul and the Divine, in the form of aspiration, devotion, consecration, and surrender through increased receptivity to the spiritual principle and action.

A disciple asks: “Are the soul and the psychic being one and the same thing?”

The Mother responds: “That depends on the definition you give to the words. In most religions, and perhaps in most philosophies also, it is the vital being which is called ‘soul’, for it is said that ‘the soul leaves the body’, while it is the vital being which leaves the body. One speaks of ‘saving the soul’, ‘wicked souls’, ‘redeeming the soul’… but all that applies to the vital being, for the psychic being has no need to be saved! It does not share the faults of the exte
al person, it is free from all reaction.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 1 Meaning and Nature of the Psychic Being, pg. 9